


Snowstorms at Unusual Times

by batterwitch_dumb_basses



Category: Homestuck, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Basically just a tiny crossover, Bullying, Gen, M/M, Post Game AU, Sadness, Suicide Attempt, first fic, i do rarepair Fics a lot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-02-10 09:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2020419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batterwitch_dumb_basses/pseuds/batterwitch_dumb_basses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack and the other Guardians nearly lost themselves during Sburb/Sgrub, and so to ensure that doesn't happen Jack is sent to Alternia so that he can establish belief there. He ends up hanging around Eridan and realising exactly how bad it is for him...Especially with a certain Captor about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. There's Such a Sad Love

What a horrible thing to be asked.  
Jack shivered, looking around the dark beach he'd been sent to. North had decided that they needed to protect all children, not just those on Earth, and he'd been sent to deal with some ...  
He didn't really know what they were. They weren't human...But he'd been sent to deal with them, and in particular one of those who lived in the sea who apparently had stopped believing quite young. He had actually died once, after killing two or three of his friends, but had come back to life after something strange had happened. After meteors had started hitting Earth, the Guardians had worked hard but been unable to do much. Protecting these kids was a back up in case the Earth was destroyed.  
He sighed. He was waiting to see this terrible murderous child walk onto the beach, and his eyes caught sight of a skinny boy with a huge purple cloak that instead of flowing along simply looked like a huge blanket, a pale face blinking behind a pair of glasses. There was a purple streak in his hair, and he looked absolutely lost as he wound his scarf tighter around his neck.  
He hoped the killer wouldn't find this guy. He floated alongside him, smiling down at this...kid. He looked about thirteen, fourteen? He was scrubbing at his eyes roughly like Jack did when he was pretending he was tired, instead of about to cry.  
"What's wrong with you? Girls? Boys? Life in general?"  
Of course, the other didn't reply, just sniffled and started playing about with the ends of his scarf.  
"Hey, fithhbreath!"  
A guy with a grin had clambered over the rocks, and Jack felt a sort of uncertainty immediately - this was the psionic who had been blinded by the killer kid. However, what sympathy he had with this dude had vanished at this....insulting way he was eyeing the other. Like he simply found him not worth the effort.  
"ED. Rethpond?" A sneer.  
The other looked up with a similar sneer, and a cackle followed from the lisping psionic.  
"Ampora, life lookth jutht ath bad ath it ever did on you," he said, and Jack frowned, watching as ice hit the sand near the other kid's feet, watching in satisfaction as he jumped back with a little screech. The other giggled a little, and as his ear fins twitched it hit Jack just exactly who this was.  
This was the murdering kid.  
This was Eridan Ampora.  
He stared and went closer, staring at Eridan in disbelief. This....this guy who looked like purple grey paper on wire was a killer? Obviously. The lisping psionic had called him Ampora.  
He moved as if to touch Eridan's face, but pulled back. His hand, he knew,would go right through the seadweller's face.  
Privately, he thought that the little fins were rather cute, but ....  
But this kid had killed and killed, his thin fingers washed with the blood of his friends. Jack reached his fingers out to brush against Eridan's own anyway, and felt a great pulse of sadness when his fingers went through his hand, feeling a little colder than before.

Over a short while of hanging around Eridan for a lack of anything else to do, Jack began to feel very uncomfortable. The 'lusus' was kind of....nasty.... towards Eridan in that it continuously huffed and tried to nose something out of Eridan's wardrobe, which Eridan would stuff back inside looking upset and actually on the verge of tears.  
Worse were the messages he received if he tried to contact anyone over the chat client - messages telling him to go die again, that he wasn't to come near them, to stop being so dramatically miserable and to stay away from them all.  
And then there would be messages about how refusing to see anyone wasn't going to gain him any sympathy. About how he was always pulling this kind of dramatic stunt and how someone named Feferi would never want him back no matter what he did.  
Jack was assuming that was the girl he'd been friends with.  
No matter if he tried to say he was over her, it would be dismissed as him denying it.  
No matter what Eridan did these people presented him with how they saw him again and again, and he would simply huddle into himself, knees to his chest and cape wrapped around him like it's the only thing in the world that cares for him, as the screen filled with poisonous text.  
Most of it was yellow or pink. Sometimes grey or a jade green.  
The yellow was more frequent.  
Jack's eyes narrowed.

trickyGuardian started pestering caligulasAquarium  
TG: hey *^^*  
CA: wwho is this i don't know your handle  
TG: i know you *^^*  
TG: very well *^^*  
CA: that's creepy  
TG: nah, just me *^^*  
CA: wwhat do you wwant anywway  
TG: you aren't that bad you know *^^*  
TG: and TA is a stupid huge douche *^^*  
CA:....i don't think you really do knoww me  
CA: and TA is better than me  
CA: he didn't kill anyone  
TG: past is the past *^^*  
TG: see it's vital for me that you start believing in good again *^^*  
TG: you have no idea how vital *^^*  
trickyGuardian stopped pestering caligulasAquarium 

Jack is pretty sure it worked. Eridan seems a little happier and he actually saves the log, and starts humming something.  
Unfortunately a girl turns up to Eridan's weird ship thing the next day.  
She's...  
He doesn't know how to describe her. Pretty, yes.  
Dangerous, definitely.  
Eridan flinches away from her and she sighs, starting to talk in a pronounced accent.  
Apparently he needs to socialise.  
He can't stay here forever.  
He disagrees. He doesn't want to see any of them and he does want to stay here. Grow older than his ancestor did.  
Isolate himself.  
Jack's pretty sure he just means he can't stand it when he hardly got on well with them before he snapped and that he doesn't want to be yelled at more than he is over a chat client, that he doesn't want to upset everything, but the girl takes it completely the wrong way.  
She says it's time to stop thinking that he is better than everyone else. That the hemospectrum doesn't matter anymore and he can't claim his superiority over hem and that he needs to accept he isn't above everything, that he's not as good as he thinks and Jack can see the little resistance Eridan has built up crumbling and falling. His eyes close and he points her to the door.

Jack can see that he just doesn't want to be around anyone now.  
That he trusted this 'Kan', who he realises is the jade text.  
That he believes everything she says in the wrong context.  
He doesn't think much of himself anymore.  
Jack's afraid that he thinks that his new life is not worth much at all. That he might just take himself out of the way of the others in a more drastic way.

When his fear is proved correct, the psionic is walking along the beach, as is Jack.  
"Come on, you could at least give him a chance. An itty bitty one. He isn't as bad as you think, and I know you think he's horrible. He's lonelier than ever. He can't see or hear me, and neither can you. It's pretty horrible."  
A gunshot. It breaks through the ship in a blast.  
Jack and the psionic stare before the psionic's face twists into a terrified expression and he runs along the pier and floats, crackles of blue and red around him. Jack is faster, racing and slamming the door open, and holding his breath as he half falls into the room.  
No  
no no no no  
A huge gash has ripped a diagonal deep stripe up Eridan's torso, and the psionic runs through Jack, howling and ripping that stupid stupid gun of his out of his hand, the new Ahab's Crosshairs the game had left him in his hive, screaming and swearing at him as purple seeps onto the floor in a big puddle.  
Jack can't touch Eridan, can't lift him up. He stares with tears running down his face and the psionic gapes as the words 'NO NO ERIDAN NO' write themselves over and over across the inside of the ship in frost as Jack feels himself shake and howl loudly, more loudly than the psionic had managed, the wind starting to whip up and the air growing the strange electric cold it does before a storm. The psionic picks him up too gently, too carefully if there is such a thing and races though the air.  
He can't quite believe he's dead, and the way the psionic is listening to his chest makes him think he isn't.  
He does remember that the psionic is the yellow text - Sol. That's what Eridan called him.  
He can see the waves freeze beneath him.


	2. As the Pain Sweeps Through

Sollux sped through the air, desperate to reach his hive and get someone there, hearing Eridan's breath growing that bit fainter. The stupid fucking douche had pulled something like this, and he couldn't tell whether it was a bid for attention or an accident.  
He tried not to think that Eridan might have actually been serious. Ampora couldn't be that unhappy.  
He couldn't be. He was too self important, too full of himself and too above everything. Everyone knew that.  
The storm was horribly fierce, too cold for the season it was, something you only saw from the eleventh perigee until the second, not before.  
His Trollian was going crazy with messages. A long log, actually.

trickyGuardian started trolling twinArmeggedons  
TG: well done, idiot   
TG: oh yeah, let me and my friends just tell this guy all the things he shouldn't hear at this moment  
TG: you know  
TG: when he is emotionally vulnerable just like the rest of us and possibly more than the rest of us  
TG: let's just assume this whole fiasco never affected him  
TG: and shove how we see him in his face  
TG: and that was such a good idea  
TG: telling him to go die  
TG: nearly every time you messaged him, I saw it douchebag   
TG: it was sickening but I managed to cheer him up a little  
TG: then your precious 'kan' comes over and starts telling him to socialise with the people who want him dead  
TG: gosh you guys are like the avengers or something   
TG: wow  
TG: good job you massive asshole  
TG: yeah let's assume everything about him   
TA: who the fuck ii2 thii2  
TG: the guardian of the guy dying in your arms  
TG: if he dies I'm not going to be happy   
TA: you aren't hii2 lu2u2  
TG: no  
TG: that you can tell from my actually caring about him  
TG: do you believe in me  
TG: that I'm real  
TA: pretty 2ure why   
TG: look outside your window

He peered out and saw ....a human? No, he didn't think this was human but there was a boy in a blue hoodie in the midst of the storm.

TA: Ii 2ee you   
TG: only because you believe in me   
TG: you see this storm   
TG: I will destroy you with it if he dies  
TA: what   
TG: yup  
TG: now pay attention TO THE GUY IN YOUR LAP BLEEDING OUT BECAUSE WHAT YOU SAID MADE HIM ATTEMPT THAT

He swore and placed Eridan gently down on the floor, fetching his first aid kit and telling himself not to care as he took off Eridan's cape, scarf and shirt and started swabbing it with antiseptic wipes, bandaging him up and sticking the bandage down before it reached his gills, which he knew from Feferi were not a good idea to cover tightly. Luckily the blast had only just escaped both sets of gills, but it had still ripped heavily through the sea dweller's chest. He bit his lip and growled.  
This was when he saw Eridan twitch and give a little pained noise. His hands itched to slap the seadweller, but he was pretty sure his hive would be destroyed in the storm this weird friend of Eridan's if he did.   
"Fithdick. Wake up."  
Eridan opened his eyes, before whining horribly and almost folding over, but Sollux caught him and straightened him up, growling at him.  
"M'not..."  
"No, you're not dead. I rethcued you becauthe you made a botched job at it." He bared his teeth and saw Eridan flinch visibly.  
It made him feel a little sick.  
He reached a hand out to steady the now swaying Eridan.   
"ED. You should be in bed, okay?" He could see that his own shirt was soaked in Eridan's blood, which probably wasn't good - it meant Eridan had both lost a lot of blood and would be scared of Sollux. It was a natural reaction for a troll to be scared of one that smelt of its own blood, which also probably explained the flinching.  
Eridan leant on him as Sollux moved him to the bed, and passed out immediately when he was tucked in. Sollux stared at him, noticing how actually young Eridan looked. He knew that they were all around six and a half sweeps when the game restarted, but it was like Eridan was a sweep younger. He sat staring.

Another person was watching as well. At first, part of Jack had been seething that this ass was staring at the guy he had been so horrible to, but then he had seen a sort of softness in his expression. That was, to Jack, rather screwed up, but he looked at Eridan sleeping so peacefully, and it calmed him down enough to look in at the window purely to check on Eridan.  
As he touched his hand to the window, frost ferns curled over it, and he quickly drew his hand back. He didn't want the asshole knowing he was here.


	3. Makes No Sense For You

"S-Sol?"   
Eridan padded through Sollux's hive, looking about for the psionic. He'd woken up, finding it unfamiliar, dark, and so cold...Although he had spotted some lovely frost ferns on the window and traced them with his fingers before a loud, crash of thunder startled him. Tight bandages were wrapped around him, and he remembered shooting at himself with the Crosshairs.  
And waking up and smelling his blood, his blood on Sol and almost freaking out before being told to go back to sleep. Of course, without sopor, he'd had a terrible nightmare that made him want to cry. Anyone would be better company than his own thoughts and memories.  
He wished the new person who had contacted him was here, but they weren't exactly someone he'd met. Shivering, he wandered into Sol's respiteblock, where the Gemini was actually in his recuperacoon instead of being up. He bit his lip, raising a hand as if to knock on the side of it, before wrapping his cloak around himself and curling up near it, making sure to be careful of his chest, which still hurt. He quickly fell asleep,curled up and silent.

Jack peered in through the window, tapping slightly. An Aquarius sign scrawled itself in the frost, and he shook his head.  
If someone had been treating him like that, he would not, as Eridan had, curl up near their bed like a lost puppy...But Tooth had told him that all trolls got nightmares - horrible ones only dimmed by the green slime in the recuperacoons. If injured, he guessed Eridan couldn't go in the recuperacoon because of his wounds, as it might be very toxic to your innards. That probably meant Eridan had had a bad dream, and gone to seek comfort.  
And the douchebag was still asleep in his own sopor. Jack's lip curled and he felt like snarling. Eridan deserved better than that. He could see that the seadweller had once more fallen asleep, whimpering a little. Nightmares must be horrible for trolls. He wanted to protect Eridan...But he had others to protect.  
The douchebag surfaced, hooking his arms over the side of his recuperacoon and peering down, eyes widening as they saw Eridan curled up, but simply staying and staring before climbing out, clad in boxer shorts and with a pool of sopor in his right hand.he began to smooth it onto Eridan's skin, and the fish troll began to relax, still. Sollux frowned, and Jack could see he was some sort of confused, but disregarded it, Eridan was sleeping better, but he still thought the psionic was an asshat.

Waking up the next morning, Sollux stretched out of his recuperacoon before staring down at the little curled up lump of seadweller at the base of it. He blinked a few times before swearing softly under his breath and snatching up his glasses  
Was Eridan awake? Probably. He wasn't purring, so he had to be - all trolls purred in their sleep. He glared at Eridan, who didn't react, and he suddenly remembered a few broken up memories - finding Eridan and smearing sopor over his forehead to shut his damn whining up, and being confused.   
Eridan didn't purr in his sleep.   
If he hadn't known FF, he would have assumed that perhaps seadwellers simply couldn't. He knew from the game that land dwelling trolls did, but from FF he knew that while a sea dwelling troll's purr was more of a warbling bubbling purr, they still purred, and they should purr in their sleep.  
Eridan didn't purr.  
This understandably unnerved Sollux. All the trolls he knew did purr. From the looks of things Eridan was still asleep.  
He waited until he was dressed to prod Eridan with his foot, waking up the seadweller who blinked and then moved up onto his knees carefully. His fins wiggled a little as he yawned, showing off sharp shark teeth. Sollux glared at him.  
"The fuck do you want for breakfatht?"   
Eridan blinked, obviously very confused before shrugging and wrapping his cape around him.  
"Heads up. He does that when he's unsure of things."   
Sollux whipped around, looking about with his eyes crackling, for the intruder in his hive, and a snort came from the window. Perched on the inside sill was...A human? He looked human, but something about him put Sollux on edge.  
"Woah there. He can't see me and you're currently scaring the shit out of him!" There was a hardness to the light tone of voice towards the end of this, and Sollux whipped around to see Eridan curled tight and small. A dull voice in the back of his mind reminded him that wouldn't help the healing injuries any, and he tugged Eridan to his feet with his psionics.  
"Fithhdick, would you jutht go get yourthelf breakfatht - or - or thomething! I'm dealing with thomething elthe right now."  
He noticed the air around him grow colder and colder as Eridan slunk out of the room like some sort of kicked barkbeast, and rubbed at his temples gently with his fingers.  
"Alright. What do you mean, he can't thee you?" he asked finally.  
The boy shrugged, a slight carelessness as he did that tipped Sollux off to the fact he had managed to piss this guy off. "I'm a Guardian. Only those who believe in me can see me. You believed in me because you felt my storm, right? Well, he doesn't believe in me. Therefore, he can't see me."  
"A...Firtht Guardian?" Sollux very carefully moved back a little from the thin boy, who let out a little yip of laughter.  
"No! Not your creepy game thing. More like a...fairy tale hero. I'm Jack Frost. Guardian of Fun, and I would say I'm pleased to meet you, but so far I'm not."  
"Thollukth Captor. Likewithe. What the fuck ith your deal with Eridan anyway?" He narrowed his eyes. Fairy tale hero? Did he mean a...fairy story? Probably. He'd have to ask RX about Jack Frost.  
"I'm meant to be watching over those of you in need of my help. The kid with the honking is okay now with the shouty one, but I do check in sometimes on them. The spider kid needs a little push now and then, just to get going, but turns out she does like the little things. But I usually hang around Eridan."  
"Thtalker." Sollux glared over the top of his glasses at the annoying kid.  
"Shut up! I'm not. Anyway, Eridan needs to recover. He doesn't need all of you being horrible to him - the worst part of it is that you're the only one that means to be horrible to him, the others don't even realise how he takes what they say - so it's only really you I have a problem with." He glared back, levelling a baa-beast-raiser's hook at Sollux.  
He gaped and then begin to spark, feeling psionics run without much effect up and down his body. "Do you have any idea what that fucking moron did to me? Do you?"  
Jack snarled a little, curling his lip and oh Gog the air is so cold. Little bits of frost were creeping over the walls and welp, he was angry. So was Sollux.  
"Yes. And he payed his price. He's paid it so many times and you keep making him pay, and I would say that you might kill him, but you already nearly did you and the others. One did right after, and you especially, you believe your own damn stereotype of him! You think you knew him back then? Like hell you did. You knew what you were told. You knew how angry he got. But then, what higher blood doesn't go mad without a damn thingamajig, the diamond one. He was without one and he couldn't fucking think straight. He still can't. But the real question is, do you know what you did to him?"  
Jack was almost shaking with the rage, and Sollux decided that since it really is too cold for him that he would stop sparking. Jack calmed down a little when he did.   
"How the fuck do you know thith? You don't know thhit about --"  
"He has little diaries from when he was younger. I got curious and you want to know something? Whoever he was before, the Game killed them. The only reason he can't see me even after I talked to him is because he doesn't believe."  
"In magic?" The Gemini rolled his eyes. This was Pupa Pan territory right here. Somebody call TV over and watch him clap his hands.  
"In anyone."  
Not so much Pupa Pan, then.


	4. Though We're Strangers Til Now

"He doethn't....Okay. Can you thtop with the dramatic bullthhit here for a minute? Of courthe he believeth in people. Hith unhealthy obthethhion with hith anthethtor for one!" Sollux squared his shoulders as much as he could, glaring at the snowy-haired boy.  
Jack huffed. "I'm telling you the truth, you idiotic sack of ...Look. He just doesn't. You don't want to believe me? Fine, keep treating him like you are doing. Let me know how that works out for you. I'm pretty sure it will end in you being frozen inside a huge chunk of ice!" Snow whirled quickly around the room, the temperature dropping and Sollux swore, jumping back.  
"HOW THE FUCK?!" he shrieked, and the boy shrugged, the anger almost shaking his spindly frame.  
"Jack. Frost. The winter spirit. Control over ice, snow, and friends with the wind. I caused that big storm, I told you I did. Now can you just calm down and start taking in what I'm telling you!" The snow stopped, leaving a thin layer melting on the ground, seeping into Sollux's socks.  
Sollux growled and Jack growled right back at him, surprising the Gemini, before there was a crash from the nutrition block and they both raced around the corner to find Eridan staring from his place on the floor surrounded by pots and pans up at Sollux, eyes wide and sprawled awkwardly.  
"What the fuck, ED?" Sollux growled before noticing Eridan's fins drooping and feeling very cold near his neck. An icy finger prodded him on his shoulder, and a small crackle made him jump.  
"Reassure him." A hiss like the icy wind of winter as Jack passed him.

Sollux crouched awkwardly, psionics picking up most of the pans while he could see pale white fingers picking up the rest of them.  
"You okay?"  
Eridan nodded. "I'm okay..." He looked off to the side and shuffled backwards, attempting to pull his cape around him. Sollux caught at his arms and he froze, before letting out a horrible little sound of unhappiness and not struggling as Sollux thought he would.  
It was really kind of nasty to see him reacting this way, and he looked into his eyes.  
"ED, I'm not going to hurt you, okay? Are you injured at all?"  
The seadweller blinked up at him, holding out a wrist, which was a light purple. It looked like it might bruise, and Sollux prodded it gently, watching him wince.  
"Thought you w-weren't going to hurt me..." Eridan muttered, mouth quirking up slightly. Sollux smiled despite himself.  
"It'th gonna bruithe, but it ithn't broken or any thhit like that. Can you thtand up or not?"  
Eridan stood, wobbling slightly but still upright. Sollux stood with him, feeling his cheeks heat up a little, before seeing Jack hover his hand near Eridan's shoulder. Eridan shivered slightly, but otherwise didn't seem to react.  
"I'll make breakfatht. You go thit down in the main block, okay?" He watched as Eridan walked off, wincing a little when he saw a tiny dribble of purple snaking down his slightly exposed hip. Eridan simply looked down and brushed it away with his thumb before rounding the corner.  
"Why do you always stare at him?"  
Jack was balancing on the raiser's hook, grinning with his head tilted at Sollux, who went a bright yellow  
"I do not! Fuck off! Who'd thtare at fithhdick?"   
The yipping laugh echoed off the kitchen as Sollux slammed the chopping board onto the side and began slicing some fruit grubloaf with some fury.   
"You were, you know." Jack peered at the grubloaf with confusion, like he hadn't seen it before. He probably hadn't, if he was an alien.  
"Well, he wath bleeding!" Sollux growled, and Jack's grin dropped as he rushed into the other room, leaving Sollux to finish up with the breakfast.

Jack watched as Eridan checked his bandages gingerly, moving his own hands forward and hovering them over them to provide a sort of ice-pack effect on the wound, which was indeed bleeding a little.  
"Damn, have you even seen this? This is nasty." He grinned up at Eridan, who, of course, looked right through him, but seemed to relax a little more at the coldness.   
"Cod know-ws w-why this is happenin evven..." Eridan muttered finally, looking around at the wall separating the main block from the nutrition block, and worrying at his lip, which began to look quite sore as he did.  
"Woah, you have some sharp teeth there, buddy! Don't do that. Hey, are you moping over this?" He blinked before realising and sitting on the arm of the chair.  
"You have no idea why he's doing this? Is that it? Well, I should have guessed that, really. He's been an asshole to you since I met you, and from what I've heard before that. You don't--"  
Eridan curled up. "He doesn't evven like me..." He began wrapping his cape around him and Jack nodded, patting the air above Eridan's arm.  
"Thought as much. You don't think he likes you. Honestly? I don't know if he does or not, it's not like it's easy to tell. Doesn't act like he does. He's an asshat, really."  
Eridan made an unhappy noise and moved his scarf up to cover his gills, and Jack sighed.  
"I wish you could see me, buddy. It's a pity..." He moved as if to hug him but stopped. If he went through Eridan, it'd simply dispirit him.   
Sollux rounded the corner with a plate of that weird bread. "ED, can you unwrap yourthelf a minute to eat?" He offered him a slice and Eridan simply stuck an arm out, took it, and hid his mouth in his scarf as he ate.  
Sollux looked over at Jack and offered him some of the bread, and Jack took it, pulling a face as he looked at it.  
"Is this even edible?"   
Sollux nodded, watching Eridan, who was only paying attention to his own weird bread slice.  
"You sure? It's green."  
Sollux sparked his eyes at him a little and Jack hurriedly bit into the weird slice of bread.  
"It's like fruit cake." He munched a bit. "Fruit cake flavoured with mint leaves. It's nice."   
Eridan reached a hand out again and blue and red sparks pulled the cape away slowly. Jack grinned.  
"That's sneaky."   
Eridan didn't notice, hiding his mouth and food in his scarf again as Sollux ate his own slowly. Jack blinked as a bee flew past, and watched it move towards Sollux's room.  
"Was that just a-"  
"Yeth." It was hissed under Sollux's breath, and Eridan looked up in confusion at the hiss.  
"S....Sollux?"   
Sollux looked weirded out at that, but shook his head at Eridan. "Jutht bit my tongue, ED, don't worry about it."  
"O...okay..." Eridan watched him for a minute or two before going back to eating, and Jack frowned.  
"His ear fins are doing that raised up thing, is that like a warn off predators thing? It's pretty cool..." His finger passed through and Eridan gave a yelp, dropping the slice of weird bread and panicking, his earfin movements becoming sluggish. Sollux leapt up and Eridan began gasping in and out quickly.  
"My fin, my fin, it's too cold, it's not moving proper, oh cod--"  
Sollux gently took the earfin between his fingertips, and Eridan froze up, before Sollux began huffing on it, and it began to move more freely. Jack was panicking to his left.  
"Oh, what did I do there? Did I freeze him? What did I do?"  
Sollux felt his teeth gritting again.  
"Well, ED. It lookth like the cold draft in here pathhed by your finth and becauthe you have a thmaller amount of cold blood running through your finth anyway, it nearly frothe your fin. It'll be fine in a minute..." He glared over at Jack, who looked really worried, but Eridan had sort of gone slightly limp, looking away from him.  
He let go of the fin, and Eridan tried to move the entire chair away from him, but gave a little cry out.  
"Fithhdick. Did you jutht jog your fucking thtitcheth again?"   
Eridan shook his head as another dribble of blood soaked through his shirt.  
"Damnit Eridan! Let me thee."  
"No." Eridan hunched over and Jack snorted, trying not to laugh. He was concerned, he really was, but...  
"ERIDAN."  
"No!" He drew his cape around him but Sollux moved it out of the way.  
"Isn't it good he's standing up to you?" Jack offered, receiving a glare in return. Perhaps not, then.  
Psionics lifted Eridan's shirt up and he let out a howl, jumping back to have the chair moved quickly by Jack to catch him.  
"Here's an idea - maybe do that when he's asleep? He won't notice." Eridan was flicking his earfins up and down, which Sollux had seen Feferi do towards Gamzee after the game had ended when he tried to go near to her and Nepeta. It usually meant 'will attack', but where Feferi was spitting and furious, Eridan was shivering and terrified. Sollux backed away slowly.  
"It'th....It'th okay, ED, calm down. I'll...jutht go talk to KK." He moved towards his back and Jack scoffed.   
"Yeah, that's great, leave me with him when I can hardly do anything. Great. You do that."  
Sollux slammed the door behind him.  
He could hear Jack chattering away to Eridan, so surmised that if Eridan started bleeding out or something he'd be shouted, and opened Trollian on his husktop.

twinArmeggedons started trolling gardenGnostic   
TA: hey Jade you're good wiith aniimal2 riight  
GG: i'm okay, yeah! what is it?  
TA: ii found a wounded one and iit wa2 bleeding badly 2o ii 2tiitched iit up   
TA: iit ii2n't happy and move2 away from me  
GG: oh no!  
GG: did it have a really big wound?  
TA: acro22 iit2 che2t  
GG: if it smelled its blood it might have panicked  
GG: but it doesn't trust or know you properly so you'll have to get it to trust you   
GG: try trust exercises, get it to know your scent!  
TA: okay   
TA: don't tell TV   
GG: but he's good with animals!  
TA: thii2 one not 2o much  
TA: iit miight not tru2t hiim  
GG: okay message me when you can!  
gardenGnostic stopped trolling twinArmeggedons

He pushed himself away from the computer and rubbed at his temple. How had he ended up taking care of an unhappy wounded seadweller? Why had he raced over?   
Maybe it was because FF wouldn't have forgiven him if he'd died?  
No. Maybe because Eridan was always there and maybe because they'd once been mixed up together and he knew that Eridan was screwed up in the darker places inside himself, but letting him die when he'd already done so already and been tortured even after that wasn't something he would let happen.  
Anyway, he'd be frozen solid if anything happened. Honestly, for someone who knew virtually nothing about Alternian culture - not even grubloaf - Jack could be disgustingly openly pale for Eridan.


	5. But I'll Be There For You

Sollux had been in his room for a couple of hours, losing himself to coding before there was a tap on his door. He tried to ignore it but it just kept on with such an irritating rhythm that he pushed himself away from the computer and pulled the door open, glaring at Jack. Jack didn't appear to care.  
"Look. Sollux, you have to look at this. Please." He pulled on Sollux's arm and Sollux sighed.  
"What ith it, a meowbeatht grub or....woah."  
A soft purple light came from the dark room and he stepped forward, eyes wide.  
"Ith that what I think it ith?" He felt a grin play around his mouth and Jack nodded.  
"Isn't it cute? I mean, look at him. He's getting used to this place, and he ...this? I've seen him flicker once or twice but, oh, man. I've never watched him glow like this. This is way cool." Jack perched on an old box of games and smiled at the sea dweller who was fast asleep on the sofa.  
Little trails of bioluminescence were lighting up softly up and down Eridan - at the edges of his earfins, swooping down his collarbone and like freckles, spattered across his cheekbones. Looking at Jack, he was amused to see him watching with a soft expression and like someone had given him a baby hopbeast.  
"You're thuch a nerd, you know?" he deadpanned.  
Jack blinked and stuck his tongue out in reply. Sollux blinked before grinning.  
"Everyone who'th clothe to a theadweller knowth they glow if they relackth." He made it sound offhand, but Jack's eyes immediately narrowed.  
"Excuse you?" he muttered, slowly.  
"Oh, nothing much, I'm jutht pointing out a well known fact." Sollux shrugged and Jack seemed to almost growl.  
"Hey now. Back off. And take it back." He levelled his staff at Sollux, who tugged him along with it, using his psionics, to bounce off the wall. Jack shrieked and refused to let go, groaning as he slid down the wall. Ouch.  
"Too. Eathy." Sollux turned his back on him. Stupid idiot with his stupid stormy powers!  
Jack grinned at him and waggled his eyebrows. "That's rather territorial of you, isn't it?" He felt a little pain in his lower back, but nothing much - he'd had worse, after all, falling through the skies. "I thought you only do that kind of thing in quadrants?"  
He grinned again, watching Sollux's jaw drop. Nailed it.  
"Fuck off! He ithn't in my quadrantth!"  
Jack grinned wider. "Do you want him to be?" he asked, and watched Sollux turn bright yellow, gaping and stuttering before recovering.  
"No! Thtop waggling your thtupid eyebrowth at me!" Sollux turned and flicked Eridan's nose, and waited until he woke up to growl at him slightly. Eridan flinched back and curled up.  
"Eridan. You need to thtop being thuch a wriggler and let me take a look at your thtitcheth, alright?" He tried to move closer, but Eridan simply curled up further. Sollux huffed and stepped back.  
"Look, you need to get him to trust you before you do that. He just thinks you're going to hurt him, nothing personal, of course. He thinks everyone wants to." Jack didn't need to add that Eridan wanted to harm himself as well. That was, after all, the reason they were here.  
"He'd be right for the motht part. KN doethn't anymore, but KK wantth to avenge me and FF. Or at leatht, he wantth to lecture him or thlap him or thomething," he muttered. Eridan didn't appear to notice, instead squeezing his eyes tightly shut and making something clench painfully in Sollux's heart.  
Jack bit his lip and moved forward, hand hovering near Eridan's cheek. Before Eridan could move or anything, however, there was a knocking at the door, light but insistent.  
Jack's eyes widened. "Oh-"  
"-Thhit," Sollux finished, racing to the door, as Jack dropped a blanket over most of Eridan. Opening the door slightly, he was surprised to see Jade, with Tavros behind her.  
Fuck.

 

"Well, I was talking with Feferi and Tavros about the animal you mentioned, and Feferi got really worried about it! Because you know, she really likes animals, and she didn't want to hear about any who weren't happy, or who were hurt, so she told me to bring Tavros and visit you. Come on, let's see it!" Jade moved past Sollux before he could stop her, and Tavros peered past him and gaped at the sight of Eridan.  
While Tavros had never really talked with Eridan before the game, he knew him by sight from when they were on the meteor. This troll who looked like Eridan wasn't the one he was used to, and Tavros could tell he was hurt.  
"Uh....That's, uh...." He turned himself sideways to try to move through the door, but Sollux stopped him, growling at him, and Tavros shrank back.There was a sort of clunking noise as Eridan leapt off the chair and landed on the floor, and Jade stared wide eyed at him as he yowled and curled up on the floor. She immediately turned to Sollux.  
"Why didn't you just say? Honestly, Sollux! That's so stupid!" She glared at him and he crackled back at her, but she stared him down.  
"Uh, let me in, please?" Tavros edged his way through the door, giving Sollux the choice to move out of the way or get whacked in the face with a horn. He instead rushed over to Jade, taking hold of her arm with psionics.  
"Look, it'th apprethiated that you dethided to come over, but can you --" she growled at him and he dropped contact, holding his hands up, before rushing quickly over to Eridan, who from the sounds of it was either swearing at her or panicking. Knowing the sea troll, it could easily be both.  
Jack blinked, making eye contact with Tavros.  
"Okay, so I'm guessing you can see me? That's nice. That is really nice." He waved at Tavros, who smiled shyly and waved back, before Jade motioned Tavros over.  
"Tell me what to do. How would you deal with a bleeding animal?" she asked, as Eridan tried to back away while not being able to move much.  
"Uh, well, I'd calm it down, and make sure it was comfortable, but hold it down so I could--"  
Jade pinned Eridan down as gently as possible, and then motioned to Tavros. "Check his wounds."  
"If it didn't hit his gills, we, uh, should be okay just to, um, clean the wounds." He pulled Eridan's tee up, despite the horrible unhappy sounds being made by the sea troll, and Jade glared at Sollux.  
"Get your first aid kit! Your medicinal kit box, okay?" She pointed. "Go!"  
Sollux rushed to find it. While most people mistook Jade for friendly all round, the girl could aim a gun with more than a little precision, and he didn't trust her not to have one on hand somewhere. Being shot would be a real damper on his day.  
By the time he brought it back, Eridan had translucent purple tears falling down his face and Sollux growled at Tavros, who shrunk back.  
"Jade, I thought you weren't going to tell him. I told you not to!" He sparked, and little red and blue lines ran momentarily down the walls.  
"Well, I thought I told you to do trust exercises, but he doesn't look like he trusts you to me!" She huffed and snatched some wipes, and Eridan let out a horrible whine as his blood was wiped off, and tilted his head up to show his throat.  
Tavros coughed nervously. "Um, Jade, could you maybe stop shouting? He thinks you want to cull him...."  
Jade blinked, and smiled widely at Eridan, reaching to hug him very gently. "Silly! I'm not going to kill you! I'm probably just going to kick Sollux's ass for not taking you to someone who could actually help!"  
Eridan let out a weird confused sound before raising his arms up and nervously and slowly wrapping them around her, and Jade giggled as she suddenly had a cuddly sea dweller hiding his face in her shoulder.  
Jack stared. "Well, that's new. Trust. Weird."  
Jade, meanwhile, glared at Sollux. "Why didn't you call for him to be cared for?"  
Sollux looked away uncomfortably. "Hey, I took care of him! I patched him up!"  
"Bet you were an asshole while doing it!" Jade shot back, and picked Eridan up. "Oof! For a skinny guy, you sure are heavy!" she told him, and he flicked his earfins at her. Tavros hurried after her, fussing a little.  
"You could set him down on the couch, and then I guess we could ask how it happened?" he suggested, and she turned with Eridan clinging to her like a lifeline.  
"Okay! I don't think I'll be able to carry him back, though...." Jade looked crestfallen, even as Eridan clung to her, and Jack laughed.  
"Wow, I like her!" He elbowed Tavros, who let out a little 'oof' sound before smiling and elbowing him back gently.  
Sollux growled a little before Jade put Eridan down again and whacked the back of his head.  
"What is it with boys thinking they can deal by themselves? Honestly, and on the same week as well! What happened to him?"  
Sollux snarled, rubbing his head. That fucking hurt. "I could have dealt with it! And it...He jutht.....He..."  
Eridan coughed. "Tried to shoot myself. Made a hash of it."  
Jack reached a hand out to him, hovering near him. Eridan looked so downtrodden, so unhappy, and it just felt like it was tearing his heart apart. He didn't want him to be unhappy. He wanted him to be happy, to believe in people....But the first baby step had been taken with Jade getting him to trust her, and the fact that Tavros seemed to bear no grudge against him.  
"What?!" Jade looked honestly horrified before turning to Sollux with a fierce look on her face.  
"I knew it! I knew you lot hadn't forgiven him! Honestly! Not only did Karkat rant at him that time, but I bet you did as well! What good was that going to do - now look what happened!" She raised her hand angrily before Tavros caught it.  
"I, uh, I don't think this is going to help, Jade!" he said urgently, as Eridan cowered back again. She took a deep breath and let her hand drop.  
"It would have helped me...Alright. Well, I hope you're ashamed of yourself--"  
"Alright, I am! I'm thorry that I thaid what I thaid! You think I'm happy he tried to kill himthelf? You think I wanted thith to happen? I'm not! But for fuck'th thake, I'm trying to fickth it! Can you jutht not?" Sollux sparked at her again, and Jade let out a little yelp as a small static shock zapped her hand. Jack seized Sollux's arms and pulled until he fell.  
"You need to calm down right the fuck now!" he growled, while Sollux shook him off, rolling over and floating upwards. "If you don't, Eridan isn't going to be able to stay, and while you might not want that, he does! His belief needs patching up, and you need to let him stay because here, no one is going to kill him for what he did, okay?"  
Jade nodded. "That's right!"  
Tavros, Jack, and Sollux turned to gape at her, three pairs of wide eyes.  
"You can see me?" the Guardian of Fun asked slowly. Jade nodded impatiently.  
"Of course! I know all of you! Honestly, I lived with a giant dog for most of my life, you think there wasn't one of you who I at least saw?" She huffed. "Give Bec more credit than that, sheesh!"  
Jack stared before laughing out loud.  
"Kangaroo. He got himself caught?" Oh, that was hilarious! The guy who was always going on about how easy it was to evade dogs, how easily he could beat them went and got himself caught!  
Jade giggled. "Yeah! Bec didn't let him go until I told him to! It was really funny, because he kept trying to run off, but of course, when he did, off Bec went to catch him! Then he told me I was an 'ankle-biter with a vicious magic mutt' and said he'd hidden eggs for me around the island. It took me two days to find them all, and next year he told me about the others....Then the year before we started the Game, I stopped believing. He didn't appear....But then he appeared afterwards, with a huge basket. He told me about what happened!"  
Jack sighed. Bad memories were cropping up. "Yeah.....I failed him, I guess...But now I'm a Guardian. The reason I'm here is in case the Game is started again, so we don't disappear."  
"Oh, that makes sense! Yeah, I guess that's the best plan...Have you got a deputy or anything back home?"  
Eridan shuffled upwards. "W-why're you talkin' to yourself?" he asked, confused, before Jade turned to him.  
"Oh, you can't see him? Well....Uh..." She looked around. "You're not going to believe this, but there's a guy here! With us!"  
"W-what?" Eridan whispered, confused, before snow began falling inside the room. Tavros reached out to catch snowflakes, and Jade began getting them caught in her hair while Sollux zapped each and every one into water. Eridan looked up slowly at the boy with white hair in the middle of the room.  
"W-who is that?!" he whispered, fins flicking in a panic before the boy swooped to sit next to him.  
"Jack Frost, your guardian angel! I'm joking. I'm just the Guardian of Fun. Pleased to meet you."  
Eridan reached out to touch the frost spiralling across Jack's hoodie before Jack pulled him into a hug, making a soothing noise. Eridan relaxed into him and Tavros and Sollux looked away with blushing faces.  
"What's wrong?" Jade asked, frowning at the two boys with their faces turned away as Eridan made a little chirping noise.  
"Indethenthy. Pale, pale indethenthy...."


End file.
